India is fine, it hasn't had a great race yet but it's a good, fast-ish challenging layout, same for COTA only it had a good race to get it off the ground with, Korea isn't the worst layout ever but i get no sense of place or "character" (a cliche i know) for some reason, at least India seems to have an element of barmy-ness about it, mainly from the locals.

I don't think there is anything wrong with Korea, nor India for that matter.
Korean GP 2010 is one of the most entertaining races I remember in the recent years, though admittedly the weather had something to do with that

India has had a couple of dull races. It has a fast layout that should be better on paper so I hope it improves. They would be wise to do away with the extra wide entries to corners though.

Korea is a total mess. It doesn't even look half finished and the track layout isn't great either. No one turns up and it completely lacks atmosphere (or at least it does on TV). I hope it does't stay long on the calendar.

I really like COTA and it delivered an excellent race, but I really dislike the amount of tarmac/run-off areas (that's covered in red/blue paint) in it. For example the "esses", I think that part of the track in particular would be so much better if it was gravel or grass.

COTA has been the only track to provide a moderately good race. But that might just have been lucky.

All of the new tracks have issues with how they are filmed and broadcast on TV IMO, with most of the main cameras being placed at the end of the straights which lead into the slower corners. You have no sense of the speed of the cars on the straights and then when the car gets close to the camera it is going slowly and not doing a lot.

For example the broadcast of COTA had next to no footage of the cars going through the S sections because the camera was down at fence level so you couldn't see the cars going over the undulations. They should have had the cameras up on a crane there to give a more overhead view.

Yeah, I've definitely noticed that, also you rarely see a shot of a car driving away from the camera, which in my opinion would demonstrate the speed better than the multiple shots we get of the cars coming toward the camera.

COTA is a cracker though those run-off area are quite some way over the top indeed.
I just love the feeling of utter desolation of the Korea track. It looks like the end of the world and that's the great thing about it. A formidable symbol of the 2010 era.

India is just too well-thought and artificial for me overall - too much 20zero so that one gets my vote.

COTA is the best new track since Istanbul-park, 1st sector is a masterpiece.
Buddh has an interesting layout, it just doesn't work for f1, I guess.
Yeongam is rubbish. I bet, it isn't gonna last long. Korea has no decent drivers, no teams, grandstands were half-full at most on Sunday, the track is in a middle of nowhere and dry races were boring.

I actually think Korea and India were a step up on previous attempts such as the glorified carparks of Abu Dhabi and Valencia, or the series of straights connected by hairpins in the desert of Bahrain. That was the all-time low of F1 track design surely? These 2, Korea and India, both have interesting features in terms of challenging corners. Unfortunately Korea is a massive flop due to finances and location, India looks pretty dismal on TV due to the smog, and neither have been lucky enough to have a decent race.

I think COTA wins by a distant margin but I can't choose between the other 2. They're not really bad... but not great neither.

COTA contains at least one weak spot IMO, a choke point. Last race Vettel lost to Hamilton only due to being held by a backmarker whom he wasn't able to overtake unless going off track, and consequently his defense strategy against faster car was neutralized. DRS of the following car took care of the rest. Vettel was leading on a good strategy and skills despite being in a slower car than McLaren. This incident should give some people pause about this track. (Nothing that cannot be fixed). Last time it was my favorite driver, next time it could be yours. Any track should be wide enough to allow for two cars to fit in.

Unfortunately I never attended in person anyone of the tracks mentioned, thus it's difficult to evaluate them. What most of us know is merely from occasional articles (like the one about food leftovers found in a fridge from last race in Korea), but it's not enough to write the track off. After all any track on F1 calendar contains its own idiosyncrasies, and none of them is perfect, although two or three do come very close to a perfection point for today's car.

COTA contains at least one weak spot IMO, a choke point. Last race Vettel lost to Hamilton only due to being held by a backmarker whom he wasn't able to overtake unless going off track, and consequently his defense strategy against faster car was neutralized. DRS of the following car took care of the rest. Vettel was leading on a good strategy and skills despite being in a slower car than McLaren.

Sure.

Fastest in FP1, FP2, FP3, Q1, Q2, and Q3; yet somehow the car lost all its monstrous speed advantage in the race.

COTA on the top spot is a no brainer for me. The first sector is a beast. Likewise, it produces very good racing, despite the fact that Tilke, along with most pundits, actually predicted that it wouldn't.

India is a close second, it hasn't delivered a good race yet, but that might be because it was unlucky, as on both occasions Red Bull were dominant. It's similar to COTA in some ways. The circuit's "main style" is corners after corners, both fast and slow, and then there's a long straight slapped in there to add some overtaking.

Then finally, third is Yeongam. Out of these three circuits, it's the worst. However, I'd say that Korea is a bit under appreciated. I quite like the second sector, as do I like the Buddh. Nevertheless, in this list, it is a distant last.

COTA contains at least one weak spot IMO, a choke point. Last race Vettel lost to Hamilton only due to being held by a backmarker whom he wasn't able to overtake unless going off track, and consequently his defense strategy against faster car was neutralized. DRS of the following car took care of the rest. Vettel was leading on a good strategy and skills despite being in a slower car than McLaren.

fanboy supreme. It's a good circuit because the faster Driver on race day was able to win and entertain the rest of us in doing so.

Hamilton was definitely faster than Vettel in the lead up to overtaking him, he was gaining over half a second per lap (in sectors 1 & 2, IIRC Vettel was faster in sector 3). But he had to be to make that overtake possible. I still think that he would of managed to do it even if Vettel hadn't been held up by Karthikeyan in the esses though to be honest.

COTA contains at least one weak spot IMO, a choke point. Last race Vettel lost to Hamilton only due to being held by a backmarker whom he wasn't able to overtake unless going off track, and consequently his defense strategy against faster car was neutralized. DRS of the following car took care of the rest. Vettel was leading on a good strategy and skills despite being in a slower car than McLaren. This incident should give some people pause about this track. (Nothing that cannot be fixed). Last time it was my favorite driver, next time it could be yours. Any track should be wide enough to allow for two cars to fit in.

Unfortunately I never attended in person anyone of the tracks mentioned, thus it's difficult to evaluate them. What most of us know is merely from occasional articles (like the one about food leftovers found in a fridge from last race in Korea), but it's not enough to write the track off. After all any track on F1 calendar contains its own idiosyncrasies, and none of them is perfect, although two or three do come very close to a perfection point for today's car.

I don't think any of the three is particularly bad, but if I have to choose, I think Yeongam is the least memorable of all. India looks like a decent track eventhough it hasn't produced any great race (in fact only one driver ever led a lap there!), and COTA can really compete to be the best Tilke circuit IMO, I like the elevation changes and particularly the first sector there. Great track.

COTA contains at least one weak spot IMO, a choke point. Last race Vettel lost to Hamilton only due to being held by a backmarker whom he wasn't able to overtake unless going off track, and consequently his defense strategy against faster car was neutralized. DRS of the following car took care of the rest. Vettel was leading on a good strategy and skills despite being in a slower car than McLaren. This incident should give some people pause about this track. (Nothing that cannot be fixed). Last time it was my favorite driver, next time it could be yours. Any track should be wide enough to allow for two cars to fit in.

That's a whole new level of sour grapes never previously seen anywhere, well done. Hating on the circuit design because of that.

Looks like unwittingly I touched the nerve, but it's just a point of view before some of you get yourself a stroke. I do prefer pure racing against artifical stimuli such as silly specs for tires, DRS, KERS, and track related tricks. Nothing much wrong with my position as far as I can detect.

The worst of the 3 would be Korea. The track isn't too bad but the location and lack of a crowd there is horrific.
Ideally, I'd take the first half of the COTA (until the end of the long straight), the 2nd half of India (Massa kerbs onwards) with the fast mid section in Korea and one of its straights.
Then combine all 3, but with the American crowd (interesting if they all show up in 2013 though or if it was a one hit wonder!) and the American location

And for an out and out flat out race, the COTA one last year was as good as it gets, just a slight pity about the end result...

But then Bahrain is a desert hell hole, and Valencia wasn't much better

Valencia is capacity limited though- with Alonso's popularity, they could get more in if there was room.Bahrain is just $hit. 1 stand in a track of over 3 miles- what's that all about? Doha in Qatar is the same.The pity is Bahrain isn't the worst layout I've ever seen.

I think Korea is the worst of the three but maybe not the worst of all - surely Valencia must the most boring track and Yas Marina, although visually spectacular never produces the most exciting races. I agree that the massed run off areas for COTA could be better but perhaps if the FIA had let the organisers keep the Stars and Stripes pattern then it would have looked a lot better.

Valencia is capacity limited though- with Alonso's popularity, they could get more in if there was room.Bahrain is just $hit. 1 stand in a track of over 3 miles- what's that all about? Doha in Qatar is the same.The pity is Bahrain isn't the worst layout I've ever seen.

First year at Valencia they had over 100,000 seats, after which they dropped it down to 45,000 because nobody turned up that first year.

And if I remember right some of the ones that did couldn't see over the barrier

Looks like unwittingly I touched the nerve, but it's just a point of view before some of you get yourself a stroke. I do prefer pure racing against artifical stimuli such as silly specs for tires, DRS, KERS, and track related tricks. Nothing much wrong with my position as far as I can detect.

I like them all, but from a personal perspective of driving them on F1 2011 and 2012, I find India the least enjoyable. Korea has some great sequences of corners and Austin has an amazing first sector and back end to the lap. In real life the Buddh circuit seems to be even more about the car than the driver compared to the other two - the mid and final sectors are full of high speed corners where the driver just leans on the car and is limited by whatever amount of downforce the car carries.

Personally I think all 3 tracks are fine, though the entrance to the pit lane in Korea is rather annoying. But if we are considering which is the worst event, then Korea definitely wins by a long mile.

I don't think there is anything wrong with Korea, nor India for that matter. Korean GP 2010 is one of the most entertaining races I remember in the recent years, though admittedly the weather had something to do with that

COTA contains at least one weak spot IMO, a choke point. Last race Vettel lost to Hamilton only due to being held by a backmarker whom he wasn't able to overtake unless going off track, and consequently his defense strategy against faster car was neutralized. DRS of the following car took care of the rest. Vettel was leading on a good strategy and skills despite being in a slower car than McLaren. This incident should give some people pause about this track. (Nothing that cannot be fixed). Last time it was my favorite driver, next time it could be yours. Any track should be wide enough to allow for two cars to fit in.

That's a whole new level of sour grapes never previously seen anywhere, well done. Hating on the circuit design because of that.

Sakae's quote is something you would not expect in a circuit thread - a purely driver oriented answer. COTA beat Seb, yeah!

Let me see - they all race on the same circuit and Lewis had this one and only chance in the race - and he used it. By the same argument you could complain that Michael just did not have the same car as Seb, otherwise MS would have won the WDC. But wait - in the case of Seb Lewis just used his one chance - they raced the same track. Could it be that Lewis was just wittier than Vettel?